I have been using yohimbe (the bark) and yohimbine (the pharmaceutical extract) from the mid-90s, and it has changed my life. But I have stopped using yohimbe and yohimbine several years ago, and for good reasons.

Yohimbe (the bark) is what got me started on the sexual enhancement train, and I still consider yohimbine (the pharmaceutical) an effective medication to engineer erections. Actually, nothing matches yohimbine for erection rigidity.

(Please note that while the bark is named yohimbe, the alkaloid that is the active ingredient is named yohimbine, ending in "-ine" instead of "-e". The effect of the active ingredient, yohimbine, can be obtained from ingesting a sufficient amount of the bark, yohimbe, or by using a prescription medication with the active ingredient of yohimbe, yohimbine.)

Unfortunately, yohimbine's strength is also its primary weakness. Yohimbine is the sexual enhancement medication with the furthest reaching systemic impact: heart palpitations and excitation with insomnia. Now this of course varies amount individuals depending on one's tolerance to yohimbine. There are also quite a number of men who do not feel any side effects at all as well.

Of course, most people who try a yohimbe bark product of the kind that nowadays is sold as health supplement will not have a problem with heart palpitations or sleeplessness. They also don't feel any sexual effect.

Why? Easy answer: most yohimbe bark products (usually capsules) only contain miniscule amounts of the alkaloid yohimbine. But at least, yohimbe bark powder that does not contain any yohimbine(or almost no yohimbine) doesn't have all the negative side effects of yohimbine.

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I understand the logic of traders of health supplements who knowingly sell yohimbe or yohimbe-containing mixtures that contain almost none of the active ingredient of yohimbe (which is the alkaloid yohimbine).

First, yohimbe bark that is devoid of the alkaloid yohimbine is much cheaper to obtain from the producers in West Africa. Second, with an ineffective product that also doesn't produce dangerous side effects, they don't run any risk of being held liable when things go wrong.

Genuine yohimbe bark (which does contain the alkaloid yohimbine) is purchased in bulk by the pharmaceutical industry that produces yohimbine tablets (primarily Plantecam in Cameroon). Pseudo yohimbe bark, which is much cheaper but contains almost no yohimbine alkaloid, is sold to the manufacturers of health supplements.

Genuine yohimbe bark (the one used for extracting the alkaloid yohimbine) has to be obtained from the species pausinystalia yohimbe. However, this plant is becoming increasingly rare in West Africa, even in Cameroon, which has been the primary supplier in the 90s. In Nigeria, which has been the main source for yohimbe and yohimbine earlier in the past century, pausinystalia yohimbe has become a hard-to-find plant. The reason is obvious.

The alkaloid yohimbine is extracted from the tree bark. After the tree has been stripped of its bark, it will die. It takes more than 10 years for the tree to grow to a size that makes it worthwhile to rip off the bark.

And yohimbe bark is a cash crop in societies, which are notoriously cash-strapped.

What still can be found in some numbers in West Africa are trees of related species, for example pausinystalia macroceras. These other yohimbe species also contain alkaloids, but only miniscule amounts of the alkaloid yohimbine.

Nevertheless, the bark of these other pausinystalia trees can nowadays still be sold. Not to the pharmaceutical industry, which maintains extracting facilities right in West Africa (Plantecam) and would immediately notice the cheat, but to the herbal supplement industry, which does not have to comply with any quality standards.

Therefore, what you get in most herbal supplement products that have yohimbe written on the label is an inferior (but healthier) yohimbe bark (which contains little yohimbine alkaloid and has been much cheaper to buy than would have been the case with the bark of genuine pausinystalia yohimbe).

The mechanisms by which consumers are sold an ineffective product are of course not unique to West African yohimbe.

If you're looking for a potent yohimbe supplement, this is what I recommend:

The same market rules apply to the herbal supplement that has become my favorite sexual stimulant which is tongkat ali.

Genuine tongkat ali extract, in a sufficient dosage, works beautifully to boost levels of free testosterone, and thereby enhances libido and sexual function much more naturally than yohimbe.

But one needs about 50 gram of root to obtain a single therapeutic dosage.

Just as Nigeria has been the original West African supplier of yohimbe bark, Malaysia has been the original source of tongkat ali.

But in Malaysia, tongkat ali is now a protected plant, and forest rangers hunt those who try to remove it from the wild. At the same time, Malaysian herbal suppliers have engaged in aggressive marketing in the US (backed by scientific studies that confirmed tongkat ali's testosterone-boosting powers).

Increasing demand coupled with decreasing supply has several effects: rising prices and the emergence of cheats.

Like most of the yohimbe products on the shelves of US health stores, most tongkat ali products, too, are void of active ingredients.

If you want to obtain the active ingredient of yohimbe, then buy the pharmaceutical yohimbine, or at least buy a yohimbe product that is standardized for yohimbine.

And if you want to buy therapeutically active tongkat ali, don't buy it from the shelf of a US health store but have it shipped from an Indonesian source.

Traditionally, tongkat ali has been a plant found throughout Southeast Asia. In Vietnam it is regarded a cure-all. In sex-crazy Thailand, men have used it as a virility tonic for centuries. And in Malaysia, it has been harvested heavily to be sold in the US (apart from being used at home).

But tongkat ali is a slow-growing shrub, and apart from that, the active ingredient is found primarily in the root. The root, which grows deep into poor hard soil, is very difficult to extract. Big holes have to be dug.

In Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, they have now turned to using the stem and branches of the shrub, not just the root. Just as there is almost no yohimbine in the barks of pausinystalia species other than pausinystalia yohimbe, there are almost no active ingredients in tongkat ali stem and branches (the active ingredients are part of the root).

So, would Malaysian producers of tongkat ali get out of the market because they no longer have the raw material to manufacture their capsules? No, they minimize the dosage, and sell root powder instead of extract, and may even turn to mislabeling.

Fact is that almost all the tongkat ali that is marketed in the US is underdosed at a factor of up to 1000. For example, capsules may contain 50 milligram of root powder, when the therapeutic dosage would be the extract of 50 gram (50,000 milligram).

But on the northern tip of Sumatra (Aceh province of Indonesia) still exist forests with a lot of tongkat ali coverage. For genuine potent tongkat ali supplement, I personally use and recommend Indonesia Tongkat Ali

Apart from yohimbe and Tongkat ali, I have tried hundreds of substances, both herbal and pharmaceutical, that all claim to restore sexual function. Most of these substances, except Epimedium (Horny Goat Weed) are totally worthless.

Horny Goat Weed is a good addition to Tongkat ali for those who somehow don't get the full effect from Tongkat ali alone.

You won't read on many sites that most sexual enhancement herbals are worthless. About 98 percent of what is written on the Internet about sexual enhancement is plain spam. These articles are written so that you make a purchase of a product that is all propaganda and zero substance.

I hate spam. I have been a journalist all my life, writing for newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, and I have written several books (not on sexual topics).

This was before the Internet. The Internet has totally changed my profession. It has very much eroded the market for non-fiction books, as on most topics you now find ample information on the Internet. And information on the Internet is usually free.